You Can Do It, But Why?

Venezuela’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected the chief prosecutor’s motion to stop President Nicolas Maduro’s push to rewrite the constitution as the restive nation continued to be rocked by protests and a transit strike.

The Supreme Court’s electoral branch declared Luisa Ortega Diaz’s request inadmissible on the same day anti-government demonstrators were marching toward the high court in protest of its refusal to stop Maduro’s special assembly.

Opposition leaders said pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” clashed with protesters and journalists near the Supreme Court and witnesses’ videos showed fistfights and people being shoved to the ground at the demonstration site. National guardsmen in black helmets and bulletproof vests stretched across a street with plastic shields, blocking protesters from reaching the court.

The decision came four days after Ortega Diaz made an impassioned plea on the Supreme Court steps, grasping Venezuela’s small blue constitution book in her hands and declaring the future of the nation’s democracy was at stake.

Two months of anti-government protests have left at least 68 people dead as demonstrators demand new presidential elections in the face of triple-digit inflation that keeps rising, soaring crime and crippling food and medical shortages.

Venezuelans in Caracas awoke Monday to find their city paralyzed by a public transportation strike that union leaders said stretched through 90 percent of the capital. Transit workers said they were protesting unsafe work conditions and demanding the release of a colleague detained nearly two weeks ago. Bus driver Santos Quevedo was charged with terrorism after allegedly transporting a group of opposition protesters, but local reports say the government opponents forced him to give them a ride. . .